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Open AccessExploring UK medical school differences: the MedDifs study of selection, teaching, student and F1 perceptions, postgraduate outcomes and fitness to practise
Medical schools differ, particularly in their teaching, but it is unclear whether such differences matter, although influential claims are often made. The Medical School Differences (MedDifs) study brings togethe...
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Open AccessThe Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning
What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides...
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Open AccessFitness to practise sanctions in UK doctors are predicted by poor performance at MRCGP and MRCP(UK) assessments: data linkage study
The predictive validity of postgraduate examinations, such as MRCGP and MRCP(UK) in the UK, is hard to assess, particularly for clinically relevant outcomes. The sanctions imposed on doctors by the UK’s Genera...
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Open AccessImpact of accelerated, graduate-entry medicine courses: a comparison of profile, success, and specialty destination between graduate entrants to accelerated or standard medicine courses in UK
Little research has compared the profile, success, or specialty destinations of graduates entering UK medical schools via accelerated, 4-yr, standard 5-yr and 6-yr programmes. Four research questions directed ...
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Open AccessWould changing the selection process for GP trainees stem the workforce crisis? A cohort study using multiple-imputation and simulation
There is currently a shortage of qualified GPs in the UK and not all of the training posts available each year are filled. Changing the way in which GP trainees are selected could help increase the training po...
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Open AccessUsing differential item functioning to evaluate potential bias in a high stakes postgraduate knowledge based assessment
Fairness is a critical component of defensible assessment. Candidates should perform according to ability without influence from background characteristics such as ethnicity or sex. However, performance differ...
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Open AccessDoctor, builder, soldier, lawyer, teacher, dancer, shopkeeper, vet: exploratory study of which eleven-year olds would like to become a doctor
Very little is known about the extent to which eleven-year olds might consider a career in medicine. This exploratory study therefore asked children and their parents about medicine as a possible career, looki...
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Open AccessAssessment at UK medical schools varies substantially in volume, type and intensity and correlates with postgraduate attainment
In the United Kingdom (UK), medical schools are free to develop local systems and policies that govern student assessment and progression. Successful completion of an undergraduate medical degree results in th...
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Open AccessCross-comparison of MRCGP & MRCP(UK) in a database linkage study of 2,284 candidates taking both examinations: assessment of validity and differential performance by ethnicity
MRCGP and MRCP(UK) are the main entry qualifications for UK doctors entering general [family] practice or hospital [internal] medicine. The performance of MRCP(UK) candidates who subsequently take MRCGP allows...
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Genome-wide association study of handedness excludes simple genetic models
Handedness is a human behavioural phenotype that appears to be congenital, and is often assumed to be inherited, but for which the developmental origin and underlying causation(s) have been elusive. Models of ...
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Open AccessThe UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools
Most UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four...
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Open AccessInvestigating possible ethnicity and sex bias in clinical examiners: an analysis of data from the MRCP(UK) PACES and nPACES examinations
Bias of clinical examiners against some types of candidate, based on characteristics such as sex or ethnicity, would represent a threat to the validity of an examination, since sex or ethnicity are ‘construct-...
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Open AccessVocation and avocation: leisure activities correlate with professional engagement, but not burnout, in a cross-sectional survey of UK doctors
Sir William Osler suggested in 1899 that avocations (leisure activities) in doctors are related to an increased sense of vocation (professional engagement) and a decreased level of burnout. This study evaluate...
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Do UK Medical School Applicants Prefer Interviewing to Non-Interviewing Schools?
Medical schools select applicants; applicants who hold two or more offers also select medical schools. In this study we examine a large cohort of applicants applying for admission to UK medical schools in Octo...
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Hand preference and hand skill in children with autism
Hand preference and hand skill was assessed in two broad age groups of children with autism, children with learning disabilities, and control schoolchildren. The first group comprised children ages 3–5 years a.....
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Are paw preference differences in HI and LO mice the result of specific genes or of heterosis and fluctuating asymmetry?
Collins (1985) has described two separate mouse strains, obtained by selective breeding, which differ in having high (HI) or low (LO) degrees of paw preference on a standard test. In this paper I argue that th...
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Designer data
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Writing hand position, birth stress, and familial factors
The incidence of birth stress was found to be slightly lower in individuals writing with an inverted hand position than in those writing with a normal position, a result in the opposite direction to that repor...
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Blood group and socio-economic class
A report last year, based on a study of a British population, that A blood groups are significantly more common among members of the higher socio-economic groups (classes I and II) has generated a wealth of co...
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The association between phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) tasting ability and psychometric variables
Tasters and nontasters of the chemical phenylthiocarbamide differ in personality and in IQ test scores. Using an undergraduate sample, nontasters were significantly more “placid” (rather than “apprehensive”) “...